Whether it's oral, scrawled in blood or signed on a deathbed everyone should have a will. But how do they actually work? Join Chuck and Josh as they explain that "of sound mind" thing in this classic episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Special effects have been around since the first movies. In fact, the techniques the earliest filmmakers created are still around today, we just use computers to do them faster and cheaper. Put on your beret and get ready for SYSK film class. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Every year Congress decides how the federal government will spend money. Simple enough, but in practice politics tend to mess it up. Sometimes it gets so messy the budget doesn’t get passed and parts of the government shut down. Then the hurting begins. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Although most people who've used Ouija boards don't think they're communicating with the beyond, there is something mysterious about how it works. Learn the ins and outs of the popular parlor game that sprang directly from the 19th-century spiritualism movement in this classic episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

MSG got a bad rap in the 70s and 80s. But what is it exactly and how bad is it for you? The answers to those questions lie within. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Barbed wire changed the Western US as much as the railroad and the six-shooter. Before barbed wire arrived, the West was free and open; after, the West became concentrated in the hands of a few big ranchers. No wonder it was called “devil’s rope.” Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Any movie featuring a deranged killer who’s perversely devoted to his mother and makes things out of human skin has a real-life person named Ed Gein to thank for inspiration. He was Buffalo Bill, Norman Bates, and Leatherface all rolled into one. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Icebergs: floating chunks of ice. True, but whoa there. Scientists are learning that there's a lot more to icebergs. Appropriately enough, we've only come to understand the tip of the iceberg and recent research shows there's plenty more to uncover. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Rubik's Cubes. Ronald Reagan. Jerry Falwell. Just Say No. One of these things was awesome. Take a guess and hop on board the 80s train. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Did you know there are airline codes for pilots and flight attendants? And some of them have to do with dead bodies on board? Learn all about it today! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Punk rock really needs about 10 episodes to do it justice, but we'll try and tackle anyway. Learn all about this movement right now. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Sleep behaviors are pretty fascinating. Some people snore, some grind their teeth -- and some take a little stroll, or perhaps a drive. In this classic episode, Josh and Chuck investigate how sleepwalking, or somnambulism, works. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Ventriloquism – where a skilled performer “throws” their voice, making it seem like a dummy on their knee is talking – has taken a long, circuitous road from early prophets, to witches, then finally to the stage. Get to the bottom of this uncanny trick. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Perhaps the most expensive liquid on the planet is the blue blood that comes from horseshoe crabs. Researchers realized that horseshoe crab blood could indicate the presence of pathogens and the massive, ongoing horseshoe crab harvest began. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The nuclear waste we produce will be dangerous for a very long time. We’ve figured out how to safely store it in the earth until it’s no longer a biohazard. Now we just have to figure out how to warn humans 10,000 years in the future to stay away from it. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

There's a secret war going on around us, and it's happening on a daily basis. The Air Force has a unit specifically designed to carry out and defend against cyberwar. Go deep into this alarming type of war in this classic episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Josh and Chuck have tackled a lot of drugs on the show, but peyote has loomed like a bad Jim Morrison poem. Learn all about this plant today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

You know that amazing smell when it rains? Kind of clean, kind of earthy, one of a kind? It turns out that a miracle of nature produces it. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

We’ve been promised solar energy for a while now – where is it? Turns out, it’s been quietly and steadily growing across the world. And with a few breakthroughs, we just may be able to say goodbye to fossil fuels. Learn about sun-based energy in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Shotgun houses are iconic pieces of American architecture: they're long, narrow, and filled with artistic flourishes. But where did they come from? Join Chuck and Josh and explore the mysterious origins of shotgun houses. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

As the operation expands it also begins to unravel. Word starts to leak out of the illegal stuff the Reagan administration was up to, Congress and the press investigate and people start to point fingers. Spoiler alert – they all got off scot free. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

When Ronald Reagan was president, America got involved in some deeply shady stuff, not the least of which was the Iran-Contra scandal – a convoluted operation that managed to combine an illegal covert war in Nicaragua with secretly selling arms to Iran. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The Black Death was gruesome: Symptoms included tumors, purple splotches, fevers and vomiting. But how did this disease manage to spread from the Gobi desert and kill approximately one-third of the population of 14th-century Europe? Find out in this classic episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

A pair of old timey fossil hunters had a rootin’ tootin’ rivalry that spilled from academic journals into the American Wild West - where fossils were dynamited and employees turned double agent. Learn about the two-fisted origins of American paleontology. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

In 1965, a 456-pound man walked into a hospital in Scotland and asked for help with a fast. That was the last day he ate for more than a year. Learn about the medical marvel that was Angus Barbieri. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Very recently, thanks to a new type of AI, it’s gotten much easier to create convincingly realistic videos of people saying and doing things they’ve never said or done. Will fake videos undermine our shared sense of reality and lead to the death of truth? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

There's no question that human cannonballs are daredevils. They pack themselves into the confines of huge cannons, which shoot them into the air. But how does it work? Join Josh and Chuck to learn more about the bizarre performances of human cannonballs. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Few things are more compelling than a witness pointing out a defendant in the courtroom as the perpetrator. But few things are also more unreliable than eyewitness testimony. Our memories can be pretty terrible, which matters when you’re facing death row. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

This week we highlight another little known historical hero. In this case, a Portuguese diplomat who rescued people from Nazi Germany, at his own peril. Dig in and spread the word of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Believe it or not, in 1985 the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb from a helicopter onto a residential building in an African-American neighborhood. The fact that this story isn't more widely known says it all. Listen and learn about MOVE today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Back in the mid-1980s a new and extremely potent drug hit the scene: crack cocaine. In short order, America was in the grip of both a sweeping addiction and a state of hysteria over use of the drug and the social consequences of crack, like crack babies. Let's take a look back at the receding wave of the crack epidemic and its lasting legacy on America in this classic episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

After the Vietnam War, the Hmong people told the world a toxic weapon was being used on them. Thus began a mystery that still remains today, which might have been solved when it was chalked up to bee poop. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Fifty years ago, the first humans stepped onto the moon. After going back a few more times, humanity lost its taste for moon travel. But it’s being revived again. NASA is planning to send humans back to the moon by 2024 and build a moon base by 2028. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Pretty much everything you know about duels is true - it's a challenge to violence to defend honor. But did you know the U.S. Navy used to publish detailed guidelines in its midshipmen's handbook? Learn all there is to know about dueling in this classic episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Everyone knows sloths are super slow, but do you know they’re slow because their bodies produce an astoundingly small amount of energy? And did you know that might be an adaptation that protects them from predators? Sloths are awesome and we prove it. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Why we love short stuff - because we can tell stories like this one. A man goes to an island to start a commune of sorts that subsists entirely on coconuts. It didn't go well. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

One of the great misunderstood figures in history was the last pharaoh of Egypt. Cleopatra’s story is almost always told along with the men in her life, and from the view of the Romans who were threatened by her. Unsurprisingly, there was lot more to her. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

What is it that makes us suddenly draw in a deep breath through a wide-open mouth? The beautiful thing about yawning is that researchers really don't know. Whether the answer is physical, mental or even contagious there is pretty much no chance you won't yawn during this classic episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Back in the day, broadcasters were bound by law to provide contrasting opinions on political matters. Why? Because of the Fairness Doctrine. What happened to it? Listen in and find out. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

In today's short stuff, we look at another amazing woman who has all but been ignored by history. The story of Mitsuye Endo. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Photographic memory is the stuff of movies and TV, but is it real? Sort of. But not really. But kind of. It's a little bit a matter of semantics. Listen in and this will all make sense. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The term "one-hit wonder" gets thrown around a lot, and - yes - you probably are using it correctly, but Chuck Bryant went to the trouble to really define what makes a one-hit wonder in the article this classic episode is based on. Join him and Josh as they get to the bottom of this disparaging term. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The Civil Air Patrol is a civilian group of pilots and plane enthusiasts who do a lot of things, namely help out in search and rescue missions. But their history is a bit more colorful. Listen in today! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Prison food is kind of a joke, like airplane food. But there are real consequences involved. Let's get into it in today's short stuff. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

If you’ve ever heard an old timer gripe that things aren’t built like they used to be, that old timer was right! Learn about the nefarious, possibly mythical, mechanism that’s responsible for the cruddy products and waste our consumer society is based on. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Did they or didn't they? There is plenty of written evidence that the ill-fated Donner Party resorted to cannibalism - except there are no bones. Learn the details of one of the worst disasters of the early West in this classic episode of Stuff You Should Know. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

As recently as 40,000 years ago we lived among humans from an entirely different species – Neanderthals. About the same time our species showed up, Neanderthals suddenly vanished. Just what happened to the other guys? Did our ancestors do something … bad? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

After a San Francisco real estate mogul went bankrupt, he reinvented himself as the Emperor of the United States – and became the city’s most celebrated resident. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

In the early 90s, a new study that found that kids who are exposed to more germs early in life are less likely to develop allergies later. With the West in the grip of a full-blown immunity crisis (still going on today), this was an interesting thought. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

For a while in the 1980s, people were fascinated and confused about what exactly crop circles were. Now we know that they aren't signs left from aliens, but art made by humans. Learn all about these stunning, large form art installations in today's episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The secret military base Area 51 is inextricably linked to every secret, shady project the US government is rumored to be involved in – from reverse-engineering alien technology to coordinating a one-world government. The truth is much more mundane. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

There is an extremely rare condition where the sufferer is convinced that everyone around him is an impostor posing as their friends and family. Learn about the neurology behind this strange and sad mental disorder in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

At times when people accepted the status quo without question, some rebels have dared to resist. When a cause is noble, it often pays to be unpopular. Listen to Unpopular every Tuesday. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Perfect pitch, or absolute pitch, is when you can sing a note with no reference from other notes, perfectly on key. Is it an asset? Chuck says yes. Learn all about this musical rarity today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Did the legendary blues singer really sell his soul to the devil in exchange for amazing musical skills? Probably not! But there’s still an interesting story there and it features the Coen Brothers. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Barcodes are everywhere. Those little lines and numbers that make up one of the most recognizable barcodes, the UPC, was designed to make going to the grocery a lot less miserable. It ended up becoming the central symbol of the global economy. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Ever wonder why some great shows go off the air after a season or less? Blame it on the Nielsen company, which has for more than 60 years been the almost exclusive decider of what goes and what stays on TV. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The panic that began in Chicago spreads and begins to change the world. The investigation into the murders turns up leads and suspects, but still no one has ever been charged with the murders. It remains unsolved to this day. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

You know how some older married couples (sorry, senior adult married couples) start to look alike over time? That’s a really weird phenomenon if you think about it. So science has looked into it and they think they kind of have it figured out. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

On one terrible day in Chicago in 1982, seven people died suddenly and mysteriously. In just a matter of hours, it becomes clear, someone has poisoned bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol, one of the most trusted and widely-used products in America. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Over the course of our lives, 80 percent of us will experience acne. Ultimately, acne comes down to one thing, a blockage in the sebaceous gland. Learn what makes a blackhead black, and everything else about zits, in this pus-filled episode of SYSK. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Tin Pan Alley was an area of New York around the beginning of the 20th Century that served as ground zero for the earliest iterations of the music publishing industry. Learn all about this unique place and time right now. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Did you know that former president James Polk had his final resting place moved twice? It's true! And almost a third time even. Let's go listen to some short stuff. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

In a new age shop or on display at the Smithsonian, there are varying interpretations of what crystals can be used for. But at their base, they are a thumb in the eye to entropy, a perfectly ordered piece of matter. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Lost materials, dropped threads, forgotten stories. Ephemera in the way that it’s intertwined in our lives. All those things, tangible and intangible, that you wish you could take just one more look at before they vanish into the past. Listen wherever podcasts are found and learn more at www.ephemeral.show Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Chuck and Josh have covered just about every aspect of death except dying itself. Here, they fulfill the death suite of podcasts with an in-depth look at just how people die, what happens to the body during the dying process and how people accept death -- and what they regret not having done while they lived. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Some guys have all the luck, some guys have all the pain. So said Rod Stewart. And if this list is any indication, “guys” is gender neutral. Listen to this episode as Chuck and Josh cover some instances of amazingly bad fortune, most of it true! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Honorary degrees are not real degrees. They are marketing opportunities for universities. They make us mad, but we want one. Learn all about them in the next 12-15 minutes. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The world’s loved trampolines since they were invented by a pair of acrobats in Iowa in the 30s – so much so, trampolining is now an Olympic event. What people don’t love about trampolines is their propensity to cause paralysis, brain injuries and death. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Instead of actually detecting lies, polygraph machines sense physiological variations, ostensibly brought on by guilt. The results are subject to interpretation, and therefore controversial. Join Josh and Chuck as they investigate the polygraph. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The world takes $40 billion of dietary supplements – from vitamin A to yohimbe bark – every year. Yet, the jury is still out on whether most of them work. In America, the FDA isn’t allowed to approve supplements, and no one can say what is in your pills. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Live Aid was a revolutionary concert event in two countries in 1985 that spanned the world via satellite. The brainchild of musician Bob Geldof, it really did help change the world in many ways, but its direct impact on Ethiopian famine relief remains in question. Listen and learn today! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

About 2,400 years ago Aristotle mentions the use of diving bells, apparatuses that convey divers to the bottom of the sea -- or at least below the surface of the water -- and allows them to breathe -- at least until the air runs out. Learn about the physics of this clever and ancient invention and how it's been used to sabotage enemy boats and build the Brooklyn Bridge. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

It’s bad enough when the government knows you’re alive – there are taxes to pay, laws to be followed, all sorts of boring and unpleasant things. But each year, thousands of Americans find out life is far, far worse when the government thinks you are dead. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

There are people out there who believe that there’s something special about the number 23. Exactly what? Who knows. Exactly why? Because it pops up a lot. But does it? Who knows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Michael Dillon was a lot of things - author, doctor, and most importantly, trans pioneer. Learn all about his story in today's episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Few numbers have as storied a past as zero. Even fewer have had as great an impact on our ability to understand our universe. Yet zero is a relatively recent arrival in math. Find out all about this surprisingly fascinating number with Chuck and Josh. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

One of the off-putting byproducts of 19th century European colonialism were human zoos, living dioramas of people from far-away places made to be gawked at. Listen in to what the deeper meaning of humans zoos held people on both sides of the glass. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Speaking in public is frequently cited as people’s number one fear, even more fearful than death. Most people go through life avoiding public speaking, but it turns out that only makes things worse. The best medicine? Public speaking. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

There have been a lot of studies over the years regarding birth order. Some conclude that it's a big deal, while others more or less discount its importance. Learn all about it today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

For millennia people used marijuana for fun and medicine. Not until the 20th century that was it vilified, unfairly say many. Weed has done lots of good things, from alleviating cancer symptoms to unlocking secrets of the brain. Learn all about pot here. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

And now for something completely different. Just kidding – tune in to hear the thrilling conclusion of America’s most amazing public works project in the 20th century. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

It’s one of America’s biggest accomplishments in the 20th century, a slab of concrete holding back one of the country’s most finicky rivers, providing water and electricity to a swath of majors cities that otherwise couldn’t exist. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

You may have played with a yo-yo before -- perhaps you've even walked the dog -- but do you know about the physics behind what makes a yo-yo sleep and wake up? Learn all about inertia, angular momentum and the history of the yo-yo in this episode of SYSK. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The electric chair is an all-American invention. It spread almost nowhere else in the world as a capital punishment but worked overtime in the States. Despite the terrible sights and sounds an electrocution produces, it was created out of humaneness. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

In 1980 something catastrophic happened to the quiet town of New Iberia, Louisiana. Their wide, shallow lake grew much deeper after it underwent an apocalyptic transformation. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Free range parenting is all about giving your child the freedom to play and explore life on their own. Are there benefits? Sure. Do some people hate the concept? Yes! Listen and learn right here. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

For about 375 million years, plants have been using pollen (aka plant sperm) to propagate their species. And the technique has stuck around because it works. Join Chuck and Josh for a cozy look at the ins and outs of plant reproduction. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Nazis were bad people. And it turns out a lot of them were high as kites on speed. Was this a recipe for disaster? Yes it was. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Have you ever wondered what happens to all those campaign donations when a political campaign goes belly up? Or, even worse, is in debt! Wonder no more! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Rape kits are simple forensic evidence collection kits used when someone is sexually assaulted. But the story is deeper than this. Learn all about rape kits, the sad backlog problem, and what you can do to help, in today's episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Immigration systems regulate the flow of foreign immigrants into any given country. But why is immigration such a controversial topic, especially in the United States? In this episode, Josh and Chuck delve into the details and debate behind immigration. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The Etch A Sketch is yet another classic toy that Josh and Chuck love and respect. Learn all about this Hall of Fame entry today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers